Politics is increasingly about snap decisions. But speed has infiltrated every aspect of our private lives. A young participant on a recent Street Wisdom event confessed – in tears – she’d never been for a walk, never allowed herself just to wander.

The journalist and author Carl Honoré (In Praise of Slow, The Slow Fix) confesses he was a one-time speed freak. Then, one evening, he noticed he’d become a clock-watching Dad, compressing his son’s bed-time story to Snow White and 3 Dwarves. He realised it was time to uncouple from the rush and since then he’s become the guru of Slow. Slow thinking, slow decision making, slow living.

He and I spent a deliciously laid back-day together before Easter and if you can find the time – you can, by the way – take a listen to our podcast.

You’ll hear

why using a pencil not a laptop helps you learn

how smart executives master the clock of business

and how snap decisions are ones we often pay for later (listen up, Westminster…)

After the recording, Carl and I took a wander into the busy-ness of central London. Take a stroll along with us.

P.S. If you want to find a bit of calm amid the rush, I’ll be leading a Street Wisdom workshop on urban mindfulness at the Mind Body Spirit Festival in London on Friday 28 April.

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2 thoughts on “Snap out of It”

Expanding on the above astute observations, there is a further factor influencing people’s decision making. The year 2012 marked the subtle end of the world as we knew it. So what changed ?

The coming of 2013 onwards marked a new era where predicting anything had become more difficult. We mostly make decisions based on our feelings. For example do you feel you should take one path or another in life. These feelings are a combination of correctly perceiving what will occur, and our imagination driving us towards fear or greed.

In this new era, it is harder to perceive what will occur, which correspondingly makes our decision making process more susceptible to the influences of fear or greed. Just look at the naked opportunism and fear based reactions of late.